Saturday, January 09, 2016

MARTIN INDYK LIED ABOUT NETANYAHU

A PBS documentary on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s rise as a politician features former US Ambassador Martin Indyk who claims Netanyahu made controversial comments to him at Yitzhak Rabin’s funeral. While video evidence proves Indyk falsified at least part of his story, he appears to vindicate Netanyahu of being responsible for Rabin’s murder.

Frontline’s controversial “Netanyahu at War,” which had its premier showing on PBS Tuesday night, depicts the Israeli politician as a feisty character who does not shy away from confrontation, and in fact, relishes it.

In that context, Netanyahu’s battle with President Barack Obama over the Iran nuclear deal is seen as just one in a long series of fights Netanyahu has been engaged in since the beginning of his political career. He may not be your favorite political figure, the film argues, but you must admire him for his oodles of testosterone, if for nothing else. And like the Israeli leader or not, it’s impossible not to admire his tenacity.

In that context, the film stops short of actually blaming the Rabin assassination on the atmosphere that Netanyahu allegedly generated during the election campaign. For one thing, it relies heavily on left-wing speakers for the narrative, so that, for instance, Rabin’s alienation of the right does not exist in the film, nor is his expressed view that he was only the prime minister of most of the people.

[...] The Prime Minister’s Office and his former advisers dismissed Indyk’s allegations as a fabrication. Footage of the funeral reveals he never actually sat anywhere near Netanyahu.

Indyk later offered a second account of the incident and claimed that the remarks in question had been made at a special Knesset ceremony prior to the funeral itself, although footage from that event shows only family members were seated and that Indyk was not present.

A leaked diplomatic cable published by the Wikileaks from that time and which discusses the ramifications of the assassination, has Indyk reporting that Netanyahu viewed the incident as “a disaster for the Jewish people, a disaster of Israel and a disaster for the Right…i’ll be decimated [at the polls] if elections are called soon.”

Shai Bazak, Netanyahu’s aide at the time, denied Netanyahu ever expressed the comments in question. Bazak said that he was with Netanyahu on the night of the assassination, and the discussions surrounded the tragedy, and not political gain.

Read the whole article, but for now, ponder what kind of a disgrace Indyk is by lying about the time, and then trying to cover his tracks with more lies upon lies. He owes an apology, but it's clear he'll never do so.